Etail, Retail and E-Commerce

Did you know that.. “Etail” is a new word for e-retail which derives from “Electronic Retail”.

Businesses often come to us with a diverse range of questions about with their online trading requirements. Often they’re looking for clear commercial advice about things such as payment and returns policies – or what they need to do to be compliant with the Distance Selling Regulations and so on. We help businesses trading online with other businesses (B2B) and those trading directly with consumers via their website (B2C).

We give clear and commercial advice on all the documents you will need when trading via your e-commerce site – this includes on line terms and conditions of trade and often also includes, privacy and use policies. It is crucial to get everything in order before a website goes live and begins taking orders, otherwise you can find it difficult to manage selling goods and services AND getting paid on time. In the event your website acts as an information only site, we can also help with simple legal disclaimers or copyright notices. It is important that these are clearly displayed or you could find problems arising with consumer legislation and the Sale of Goods Act.

It is also worth noting that many payment gateway providers such as PayPal will not allow you to open a merchant account without satisfactory e-commerce terms and conditions in place. If you are unsure on the terms you are about to sign up for, do not hesitate to get in touch so that we can de-mystify them entirely and make sure YOU get paid without problems.

From our extensive experience on website work to date, we suggest that the following policies are vital for any business trading online.

Terms and conditions for supply of goods

Terms and conditions for supply of services

Terms and conditions for use of website

Privacy policy

Cookies policy

Other useful legal notices include:

Online Membership rules

Copyright notices

Legal disclaimers.

Sell posted content rules

User generated content agreement

Third party user agreement.

Cookie policies

Data Protection.

A privacy policy and cookies policy is advised as online trading often involves data protection and privacy issues. You may already be aware that recent changes to the law on cookies mean that website users must give their consent with regards to ‘cookies use’.

What We Can Do For You

We ensure that all of the above are compliant with the ever changing legislation in this arena. Just as an example you may need to know about the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 which came into effect on 13 June 2014. These are particularly relevant to online sales and set out the information an etailer should give to consumers before they purchase goods. They also cover cancellation rights and cooling off periods.

We take a holistic and commercial approach with clients. We know this approach matters in business and that it is important to make sure you know the issues and the risks. With any type of e-commerce advice we give you the overall picture and identify how best your IP can be protected online. This could be anything from copyright advice on the content of your website, the importance of trade marking your brand when operating online or flushing out the essential terms with your website developer.

You may also wish to read the ‘Online Issues’ section of our website.

We also upload regular news articles on all things etail and e-commerce related so don’t forget to keep a look out on here regularly.

London Office

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